From the Papers: Sales of Science and Health

Mary Baker Eddy, c. 1884. P00250. W. Shaw Warren; Advertisement for Science and Health in The Christian Science Journal, March 1886; Cupples, Upham & Co. to Eddy, November 11, 1886, 941.91.113.
The January 1886 issue of The Christian Science Journal included an article advertising the “New Edition of Science and Health.” This 16th edition of the textbook was, it stated, “worth the notice, not only of Christian Scientists, but of all who are interested in the progress of truth.” The article touted important changes—”…[A]ll of it has been carefully revised and rewritten by Mrs. Eddy, and greatly improved”—and noted the addition of the “Apocalypse” chapter and an index for easy reference.
Inasmuch as Science and Health was now bound as one volume instead of two, the article went on to explain that people too ill to hold such a large book could request it bound in two volumes. It also then reiterated the importance of people reading the textbook for themselves:
In one instance a sick man invented for the purpose a stand, to hold this book by his bedside, and a small apparatus for easily turning the leaves. This alone shows how valuable Science and Health has been to the suffering. Cures have been wrought simply by reading it.1
In the Journal’s August 1886 issue, Eddy’s secretary Calvin A. Frye, who was responsible for filling the book orders, provided an update:
The newly revised edition of Science and Health is carrying to many hungry hearts the Gospel of Peace. It holds the solution of the great problem of Mind and matter, and is establishing the Science of Mental Healing on its only sure foundation. About four thousand copies have been sold within the last five months.2
The Mary Baker Eddy Papers team can certainly testify to the large number of orders that Frye reported. As we’ve published nearly 2,000 letters so far from the year 1886, we’ve noted that many were orders for Science and Health.
At the end of his article, Frye made a request: “N. B.—Will all the Christian Scientists, who advertise Science and Health for sale, give the name of the author as it is given in the book?”3 Documenting the importance of crediting Eddy for her primary work was an attempt to keep others from claiming its authorship and to detour unwitting students away from fraudulent classes. Frye’s Nota Bene also illustrates how Christian Science practitioners and teachers were often serving as sales agents for the book; they would place orders with Frye and then resell Science and Health as part of their healing practices.
On November 9, 1886, Edward P. Bates wrote to her: “I enclose you New York Draft for $60.00 for 2 doz ‘Science & Health’ They sell as soon as we get them here.”4 John Filbert, another student, ordered a dozen copies for his practice in Council Bluffs, Iowa.5 Emma A. Thompson was already “anxiously waiting” for her order of a dozen copies even as she placed it with Frye.6 She later took Eddy’s Obstetrics class and helped found Second Church of Christ, Scientist, Minneapolis, serving as a practitioner in that city for many years.
Reuben Whitaker forged a link between student-agents and booksellers. After serving in the American Civil War, he started Whitaker & Shriver, a bookseller, stationer, and wallpaper dealer in Oskaloosa, Iowa. On November 13, 1886, he informed Eddy that he had just taken Christian Science Primary Class with Jennie B. Fenn and wanted to order Science and Health for selling: “…we want Some books please send me 12 Copies Science & Health with Key to the Scripture also 10 copies Christian Healing 6 The Peoples God 10 copies Historical Sketch.”7 Correspondence over the next few years shows Whitaker ordering and selling the textbook and Eddy’s other works. He and his wife, Hattie L. Schriver, took the Primary Class with Eddy in 1888, and both went on to have long careers as Christian Science practitioners.
Other booksellers also placed many orders for Science and Health. For example, Cupples, Upham & Co. sent an order for 25 copies on November 5, 1886.8 This Boston bookseller, housed in The Old Corner Bookstore on Washington Street, wrote less than a week later to order 50 more copies.9 Such high interest was likely due to the fact that this neighborhood was central to the early Christian Science movement. For example, Eddy preached in Hawthorne Hall and Tremont Temple, locations within a few blocks of Cupples, Upham & Co.
Another key city of rapid growth for Christian Science was Chicago. There, bookseller and stationer A. C. McClurg & Co. became a regular agent for Eddy in the fall of 1886. In a letter of inquiry, they wrote, “We are having quite a large inquiry for your book ‘Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures,’ and have obtained our supplies from eastern booksellers, but we prefer to deal directly with the publisher if possible.”10
Of course, individuals were also directly ordering Science and Health. For example, Aaron Martin Crane from Newport, Vermont, wrote to order a copy after seeing an advertisement for it in the Journal. He enclosed a postal note for the equivalent of just over $100 to cover the price of the 16th edition, including postage.11 Crane then took Eddy’s Primary course in November 1887. The ad that prompted him to send for the textbook may have been the one that ran in the March 1886 Journal, which noted, “New edition—one volume, 590 pages, copious index, fresh mottoes—is now ready, and for sale at Metaphysical College; though the demand is so great that a second 500 are already disposed of and another 1000 must soon be ordered, if indeed that order is not already in process of execution.”12
These orders, and many more from the waning months of 1886, chart steady demand for Science and Health. They also identify a varied customer base: agents who were Eddy’s students, established booksellers, and eager individuals who hungered for the revised edition. All who were “interested in the progress of truth” could find the Christian Science textbook and begin their own explorations of its “Gospel of Peace.”
Please note: Quoted references in our “From the Papers” article series reflect the original documents. For this reason they may include spelling mistakes and edits made by the authors. In instances where a mark or edit is not easily represented in quoted text, a deletion or insertion may be made silently.
- “New Edition of Science and Health,” The Christian Science Journal, January 1886, 180, https://journal.christianscience.com/shared/view/2dc71awdmeo?s=copylink
- C. A. Frye, “Massachusetts Metaphysical College,” Journal, August 1886, 130, https://journal.christianscience.com/shared/view/2j8vlhwsum0?s=copylink
- Frye, “Massachusetts Metaphysical College,” Journal, August 1886, 130.
- Edward P. Bates to Eddy, 9 November 1886, IC939.91.019, https://mbepapers.org/?load=939.91.019
- John P. Filbert to Eddy, 8 November 1886, IC943.92.025, https://mbepapers.org/?load=943.92.025
- Emma A. Thompson to Frye, 26 October 1886, IC953.93A.009, https://www.marybakereddypapers.org/?load=953.93A.009
- Reuben Whitaker to Eddy, 13 November 1886, IC954.93A.018, https://www.marybakereddypapers.org/?load=954.93A.018
- Cupples, Upham & Co. to Eddy, 5 November 1886], IC941.91.114, https://mbepapers.org/?load=941.91.114
- Cupples, Upham & Co. to Eddy, 11 November 1886, IC941.91.113, https://mbepapers.org/?load=941.91.113
- A. C. McClurg and Co. to Eddy, 14 July 1886, IC948.93.001, https://www.marybakereddypapers.org/?load=948.93.001
- Aaron Martin Crane to Eddy, 9 November 1886, IC941.91.094, https://www.marybakereddypapers.org/?load=941.91.094
- “Science and Health,” Journal, March 1886, 240, https://journal.christianscience.com/shared/view/2i9fjicupzc?s=copylink